Magical
Moonshine Theatre Shows

Magical
Moonshine has a large selection of
productions for you to choose from,
everything from large, mainstage
performances that can be seen by
600-1000, to small shows for the home
party, library, classroom, cafe or
gallery. To help you find what you are
looking for, please select from the
following choices, or for personal help,
call 707-363-4573 or email mail@magicalmoonshine.org.

Fees vary
according to production and travel, but
there is something for most every budget.

Tale One: The
Miller's Tale (this one's for the
grownups!) A carpenter tries to keep his
wife faithful, but she is less than
chaste. For more on this and upcoming
plays and this exciting literary
partnership with McCune Rare Book Library
(the McCune Collection) click here.

The Puppet Man

For hundreds of years
puppet entertainers have roamed the
streets in countries all over the world.
They have sought to delight, amuse,
reform their audiences, as well as earn
their keep in society. Traditional puppet
characters such as England's Punch and
Judy, Germany's Kasperl, and France's
Guignol all evolved from humble folk
origins, nurtured by these street
performers.
In The Puppet Man, MMT's Michael Nelson
creates his own version of traditional
European street theatre. The performances
are colorful, lively, spontaneous and
ever-changing. In this unique
theatrical experience, the puppeteer,
puppets and audience respond to each
other to create the play together!

Great for Libraries.
Recommended for children ages 4 and up.

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Puppylocks and the
Three Bears

WHAT
IF? What if the
Three Bears were really Teddy Bears? And
What if Goldilocks was not a little girl
at all, but a golden, mischievous little
dog? That is exactly the case is this
very funny retelling of the traditional
fairytale. Watch this impish little dog
do everything wrong in the Bear's house
while the bears are off to the TEDDYBEAR
CIRCUS! Puppylocks is presented with
traditional Bohemian style marionettes on
a tabletop stage. It runs about 40
minutes and is highly recommended for
ages 3 and up. Live music and singing.

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The
Three Little Pigs

Three pigs set out to
seek their fortunes with a bit of house
building. Things don't go as planned in
this creative retelling of the
traditional story; houses collapse, pigs
and wolves play together and audience
members help the story along with lots of
live music, singing, construction and
laughter. Presented with traditional
Bohemian style marionettes on a tabletop
stage. This show runs about 40 minutes
and is recommended for ages 3 and up.

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Animalitos (The
Little Animals)

A collection of
Aesop's fables woven together in a
magical puppet dance. A rabbit starts a
race with a tortoise, but seeing that he
has plenty of time, he wanders off, and
gets involved with a fox who is trying to
court a crane with a romantic dinner for
two. With some clever tricks they manage
to get some food to serve but things go
awry when the fox talks the rabbit into
being the waiter for the meal. Meanwhile
the tortoise is getting closer and closer
to the finish line...

This story is told in a combination of
English and Spanish.
Recommended for children ages 4 and up.

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The Armadillo's
Rancho

This story from
Argentina tells of a wealthy Fox who
tries to take advantage of a poor
Armadillo, making her work his garden for
him. He thinks he is getting the best
part of the deal, but the Armadillo is
smarter than he is at every turn and in
the end succeeds in setting things right
once and for all.

This story is told in a combination of
English and Spanish.
Recommended for children ages 4 and up.

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Coyote Sings

In the Native
American story, Coyote Sings, the crazy
buffoon, Coyote tries desperately to
learn a song. This combined with his
bungling attempts to hunt for food and
impress all his neighbors with his
personal skills make for hilarious slaps
tick. Southwest motifs and designs and
Mexican folk tunes make this bilingual
show a very poplar addition.

This story is told in a combination of
English and Spanish.
Recommended for children ages 4 and up.

The Fox and the
Condor

In this mythological
story from South America, there is little
food on the earth while in the clouds the
birds have much food. The Condor, the
king of the birds takes pity on a hungry
fox and carries him up to the clouds to
eat, but the greedy fox does not stop
eating until he falls from the cloud and
his belly bursts open, spreading seeds
all over the earth. It is these seeds
from which the plants on earth have
descended (so the tale tells us.)

This story is told in a combination of
English and Spanish.
Recommended for children ages 4 and up.

Cirque du Cafe

MMT's Cirque
du Cafe is a table top circus for
the whole family, where salt shakers do a
trapeze act, a wine bottle and a baguette
perform magic, a bread roll rides a pizza
cutter unicycle and a banana swallows
swords longer than it's body. This is
object theatre and puppetry and circus
and great fun!

This show was originally
designed for adult audiences in the cafe
setting, but since it opened in Spring of
2005 it has played very well in various
forms for family as well as adult
audiences, in a variety of settings, both
restaurant as well as theater.

With many acts, the length and age
appropriateness can be adjusted.

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The Recycling Show

The Recycling Show
focuses on the whys and hows of living on
earth in our age of consumption.
The entire stage for this show was made
from recycled materials. Because
recycling regulations often differ from
county to county, MMT researches
recycling facts and statistics for each
county before they perform this show.

Recommended for children ages 4 and up.

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Tales of Br'er Rabbit

In these African
American trickster tales, the clever
Br'er Rabbit survives by relying on his
wits. The stories are told with large,
direct-manipulation puppets, live banjo
music and singing and have been an
audience favorite since 1981.

Recommended for children ages 4 and up.

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Dragon, Tiger and
Bear

This story is a
Southeast Asian Folktale from the Hmong
people. Long ago a wise, old man
lived with a Bear, a Tiger and a Dragon.
One day the animals all set out to try to
scare one another by seeing who could
make the greatest commotion. When the man
finally took his turn, he used his brains
to teach the others a lesson. He scared
the animals so badly that bears, tigers
and dragons will no longer live with
people. The story is presented with
shadow puppets, masks, and live music
played on a variety of SE Asian musical
instruments.

Great for Libraries.
Recommended for children ages 4 and up.

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The Fox and the Elk
Make a Trade

In this story a fox
and elk decide that they are not happy
with the way they are made, so they
decide to switch arms and legs with each
other. The fox, now with very long arms
and legs, finds that she can no longer
hunt, and is in danger of starving. The
elk with the short fox arms and legs can
not reach the leaves on the trees that he
is used to eating. Both finally realize
that they were much better off the way
they were originally and in the end
exchange arms and legs again, happy to
have their old limbs back. The story is
humorously set to popular U.S. music of
the 50s.

Recommended for children ages 4 and up.

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Coyote Brings Fire to
the People

It is told that long
ago when the earth was new, the people of
California were cold because they did not
have fire. They went to Coyote for help
and he organized Bear, Mountain Lion,
Rabbit, Squirrel, and Frog to help steal
fire for the people. MMT presents this
native Californian folktale with shadow
puppets and music.

Great for Libraries.
Recommended for children ages 4 and up.

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Coyote and Grizzy
Bear

Native Americans of
the Western part of this continent tell
many stories about the trickster, Coyote.
In this story from the plains states,
Coyote plays a trick on the ungrateful
Grizzly Bear, thus saving the life of
Mountain Ram. Although presented as a
Native American folktale here, the theme
of this story is universal, and appears
in tales from many cultures around the
world. This folktale is told with masks
and Native American drum.

Recommended for children ages 4 and up.

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Seasonal and
Special Programs

4th of July
Parade, City of Vallejo, California

July 4, 2007
Marked the 200th birthday celebration of
General Mariano Vallejo, who lived in
Sonoma, California. The city of Vallejo,
California is named after him.
To celebrate, the cities of Sonoma and
Vallejo commissioned MMT to make two
giant Vallejo puppets to walk in parades.
We made the puppets very light and airy
so the puppeteer inside would be as
comfortable as possible. By the
end, the puppet weighed about 17 pounds.
It also had a structure inside of it that
allowed the puppeteer to stand the puppet
on the street and rest, not holding the
weight of the puppet at all.

The Grape Blessing

The Earth Mother,
represented by a graceful 14 foot tall
figure, leads the procession of musicians
and celebrants to the rustic altar, made
of barrels, burls and natural objects.
There She takes her place to preside over
the following ceremony:

Following is the purification of
the ceremonial grape knife, and the
harvest of the grapes, the crushing of
the grape to juice, and the offering to
the four directions. When the offering is
given to the Earth, the Spirit of the
Vines (an animated figure made of natural
grape vines) is awakened.

At his touch the bounty (and the bottle
on the altar) overflow, as red wine
fountains down over the altar in
abundance. The blessing is complete with
offerings of music and poetry shared with
the celebrants.